Work Text:
"You know I can feel you staring."
Light taps on the floor sounded behind her, as the towering creature stepped into the light. The taps themselves continued steadily, until she could hear him practically breathing down onto her.
She sprawled on the stage, reaching for her phone to turn the music down. In front of her was quite the sight. Sticky notes, pens, textbooks. There was quite the array of school supplies, somehow messy yet organised into their little sections, forming somewhat of a circle. Almost like she was trying to cast a ritual, she’d huff sarcastically.
"Couldn't you just do your homework in your dorm?" Kirin commented, blinking slowly as she scoffed, her eyes staying glued to her books. She raised an eyebrow, mocking him. But with her face turned away, it was not something he could directly see.
"But where’s the fun in that? There's nothing special about that atmosphere, it's always eerily silent, I'm sitting there knowing there's people on both my left and right, only separated by a wall. Over here there's so much light it's practically free electricity. The air is crisp too."
It went unspoken that there was something weirdly calm about being on stage.
He only huffed, choosing to continue watching her antics. It wasn't as though she was causing any actual property damage….yet. She's kept the stage clean mostly, and she never makes too much of a ruckus. All her jokes about property damage had mostly…… never been acted on. She did however once bring in a gas canister once and started a fire to roast marshmallows out of nowhere. Weird.
“There are so many other places you can go to, if you want to be alone.”
“Sometimes i feel like I've heard this conversation before.” She replied, a lack of hesitation clear in her voice. “It's already this late at night, where else would i find such a huge light source? Or such abnormal company? Unless you're telling me i can go out there and easily find another theather this big with its very own personal giraffe that likes displaying it’s ass, I remain firm on my stand that this is the best place to go to at night.”
Kirin only blinked and turned to stare somewhere off stage, choosing to once again ignore that dig at him.
Her pen scribbled out more lines, the clack of a calculator sounding. A hiss escaped her mouth as she glared at the math question in frustration. Insults flowed past her lips. "Stupid math," she muttered, slightly louder than the other incomprehensible sounds she was making. Hastily flipping through her textbook for the umpteenth time, the pages showing signs of being constantly used.
"Doing your homework in the afternoon would be a better idea, don't you think?"
"Tsk. You’re saying that as though you’re my teacher." She grumbled, writing more onto her already messy notebook, before writing down something in her textbook. The cycle repeats, again and again. Constantly having to swap between her school work, textbooks and notebooks.
Suddenly, unprompted, she stops writing, turning around to reach for her bag. The rustle of a plastic bag caught Kirin’s attention again. Looking over, he could see her pulling out a bag with some leaves poking out of it.
“Can you eat?” She nonchalantly asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you eat?”
“Depends.”
Humming in approval, she placed the plastic bag outside her circle of study materials, letting the items peek out. Walking closer, he nudged the bag to investigate. There was a bundle of leaves, some carrots and a pack of hay. He sniffed at them, turning to look at her in the eye.
“Acacia leaves. Had someone who managed to get them for me. Help yourself, unless you have some magical tree down here to eat from that you would prefer.”
“And how do you know if I don't have a tree down here for food.”
“I don’t. If you don't want them let me know I'll just have more food for other animals.”
He sniffed, slowly picking at the leaves. “And why would you bring food?”
“Why not.” She turned her focus back to her homework, leaving him to do whatever he wanted with the food. Nudging aside everything else, he slowly ate the leaves, keeping an eye on her. “You better not have dugged these,” He warned, glaring at her. She only barked out a laugh in reply, not even looking at him.
“Even if i did, there’s a chance another giraffe would take your place. And a rotting carcass is annoying to clean. And considering you’re a fucking giraffe, I am not in the mood to drag around a huge ass dead body.”
It took a while more but eventually, her work was complete and she began gathering up all her things. A quick scribble of something onto her books and pens were shoved back into their respective pencil cases, pieces of paper and sticky notes shoved into a small file. Kirin sighed as he looked at the mess being cleared up.
“I would say not to come back here but you're still going to come back tomorrow, aren't you?
"And you're still asking that. Shouldn't you basically be used to my schedule by now? It's been more than two months since I started doing this. You always say wakarimasu, but with the way you're still asking questions, do you really wakarimasu people’s actions?" she mocked, shutting her textbook and placing it back into her bag.
"Of course I do. In my time I've met many….interesting stage girls….but rarely anyone breaks into the stage this much, especially not as often as you."
"Nice deflecting." She hummed, picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. “Half a direct answer, but i’ll take it.”
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It was definitely unexpected, yet she committed her first break in almost immediately after she had gotten familiar with the general area between the dormsand schools. Barely leting the weeks past, since she officially joined the school. How she found the place was questionable at best.
"How did you get in?"
"I have my ways."
Her nonchalant reply rang out in the almost silent hall, the only other sound being soft music playing. She silently continued stretching, clad in an oversized t-shirt and shorts. Her dancing shoes were paired with socks made of the same material her normal stockings were made of.
Ironically enough there were cartoon giraffes on the hem of her T-shirt, but Kirin decided to not comment on that. Looking around, there were a pile of things neatly placed somewhat further away from her. A pair of shoes, a shoebag, two water bottles, and a black fabric looking pile that Kirin couldn’t be bothered to identify.
“And why are you here?”
“Because.”
The conversation was clearly going nowhere. She only continued to stretch, the music being something in between a slow song and some upbeat lyrical music. She went through her motions without saying another word, before hopping up to grab her phone. The music player showed on the lockscreen, right beside the brightly staring numbers, unwavering as she remained still for a moment or two.
(11 34 pm. It was late, but decently early in her opinion.)
Hasty typing ensured. She looked in her phone's playlist to find specific songs, her eyes landing on one. Lightly throwing her phone onto the small pile of things, she looked to the ground for position zero, shuffled slightly to the right, waiting for the music to start.
It was freeing. Being able to dance like this. The music barely being loud enough to hear. The way the silence hugs her. No one-
Technically the giraffe was watching. But did it really count? It had the air of a cryptic being, not one that would stand there and criticize her….internally to himself or externally for anyone to hear.
Yeah. No one was watching her. She could dance the way she wanted to. She could perform anything she wanted. There were no rules. A stage this big allowed her to do whatever she wanted. Dance in a small area, or dance all over the stage, it didn't matter.
(The brief thought of bringing a swimsuit crossed her mind, maybe she should find a day to play in the water around the stage. Would she be allowed to do so? It didn't matter.)
There was just something about knowing that it was late at night. Everyone in the dorms should be asleep. Japan was resting, falling into a deep slumber. It was calming, being awake at such a time. The world had their minds somewhere else, it was just her and the stage now.
Up on the stands, Kirin only watched. He made no further comments, his eyes following the girl on stage. She definitely wasn't a random stranger. Her movements were clear. Every lift of an arm, every turn of her body, was executed in clear familiarity. She wasn't some amateur performer who stumbled upon the theater, she was someone made for this environment.
The music transitions into something slower. On stage, she slowly moves into a lighter dance.The music slowly gave way to what should be vocals, yet all that was there was empty instrumentals. She hops in, carving a story with the place of other voice in the back, creating a duet. Although alone, the way she moves makes it clear that someone was mising from this performance. There was space for another, the vocals was clearly a dance between two.
The song eventually comes to an end, fading out with every beat. Her dance slows, coming to a stop in time with the song. Her arms reached up for something, far out of her reach. Someone? Something? What it was, that was only for her to know. Kirin only watched, devoid of any identifying features. Approval? Annoyance? Apprehension? There wasn’t a single sign about how he felt about this girl.
He had already known who she was.
A girl of the stage, indeed.